Muscat: In the presence of Judge Yusif Al Fulati and representatives of the Public Prosecution, the Court of First Instance in Muscat yesterday postponed the trials in three corruption cases to March 16.

The first case involving bribery includes an engineer from the gas sector of state-owned oil Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and the executive director and partner of Al Turki Enterprise, stood before the court yesterday. The Public Prosecution has charged the PDO engineer with taking a bribe of OMR 30,000 from Al Turki Enterprise so it can be granted contract for the Al Amal bloc project.

The public prosecution presented the evidence that the accused engineer accepted the amount from the Al Turki Enterprise official at his house in the Madinat Sultan Qaboos district of Muscat.

Regarding the money transfer, the public prosecution said the bribe was meant to strengthen relations with the PDO officials and for granting favour to Al Turki for the allocation of blocks off the southern Oman coast. The prosecution added that the PDO engineer admitted during the investigation that he had received the amount, which is in violation of PDO policies. The charge was based on the report of the State Financial and Administrative Audit Institution (SFAAI) to identify the job of the first defendant, which showed that he served as project manager for Al Amal oilfield in the south of Oman.

During the hearing, the PDO official denied the charges, claiming that his confession before the public prosecutors should not be taken as an evidence as it was made under duress.

The PDO official expressed displeasure over the way of his arrest as he was whisked away from his house in only undergarments.

The Al Turki Enterprise official confessed before the court that the PDO official asked him for OMR30,000 (Dh286,178) to buy a car for his wife, as well as for smooth allocation of the project to Al Turki.

In the second case, the project manager (first accused) of Saih Nahida oilfield and Khuwair Gas Station of PDO in the north, the acting Director General and member of the Board of Directors (second accused) of Galfar Engineering and Contracting Company, and the Deputy (third accused) of the oil sector at Gulfar Engineering Company, underwent trial before the court.

The public prosecution charged the first accused of accepting a bribe of OMR 50,000 to grant Saih Nahida contract and to facilitate the work of Galfar Engineering Company.

The second and the third defendants have been charged by the Public Prosecution for paying a bribe to the first defendant. However, the three accused denied the charges, saying that their confessions were extracted under duress.

The case has been adjourned till March 2 for further hearing.

In the third case, the project manager (first accused) of Saih Nahida oilfield and Khuwair Gas Station of PDO, the CEO (second accused) of Larsen and Toubro Company and the Director (third accused) of business development and tenders at Larsen and Toubro Company underwent trial before the court.

The Public Prosecution charged the project manager of accepting OMR 76,000 to facilitate the work of Larsen and Toubro Electromechanical Company for Khuwair Gas Station contract.

The first and second accused denied all the charges before the Public Prosecution while the third accused admitted to the court that he bribed the first accused on order from the CEO of the Larsen and Toubro Company. The case has postponed till March 16.

Meanwhile, an official at the Public Prosecution told Gulf News that more officials from the government and private companies would be summoned to the Public Prosecution for their involvement in bribery and corruption cases.

The CEO of the National Gas Company has also been arrested and interrogated by the Public Prosecution in some corruption cases, according to the company.